So, if you have been thinking of upgrading from your old microwave oven, here are the best smart microwave oven with Alexa support. But first,
Grow your own herbs with smart garden kits Smart plug vs smart outlet: which is better for your smart home Here are the best automatic soap dispensers for homes
1. GE Smart Countertop Microwave Oven
In its heart, the GE smart microwave oven is a 900W appliance and has a 0.9-cubic-foot of cooking space inside. Also, it is one of the affordable smart microwave ovens with Alexa support.
So how do the Alexa voice commands work? Well, you can adjust the cooking time. For example, saying “add 30 seconds” will another half a minute to the time. Or, you can start the timer or adjust the power level. The good thing is that you can also pause and stop the cook from afar. The Alexa commands work flawlessly and support up to 70 commands. The scan and cook is another clever feature. However, you will need to install the companion app on your phone. Once done, you can scan the food item’s barcode, and the microwave oven will send the time and the power settings to the oven. Cool, right? This feature takes care of everything from defrosting food to heating food. There’s a slight catch, though. The food has to be present in GE’s database. If not, you will have to go through the usual route of punching in the settings yourself. Other than that, this smart microwave oven works as intended. Though the power is a tad on a lower scale, it’s a good deal for the price, especially considering the smart features.
2. Toshiba ML-EM34P(SS) Smart Microwave Oven
Compared to the one above, it’s a powerful microwave oven, and offers a bigger space. The latter is useful if you want a slightly bigger oven for your family. Like the one above, there are a few presets for popular foods like pizza and one-touch buttons for popcorn and potato. The popcorn button works as intended, but a few users have complained that the Alexa commands for the exact weight and power settings do not work at times. That said, simple commands like pausing the block and stopping the timer work as expected.
The Toshiba ML-EM34P(SS) smart countertop microwave oven is a popular choice primarily for its good value-to-money proposition and easy-to-use nature. However, it’s not without faults. For example, the clock on the oven tends to show the wrong time. Even though the oven is connected to the internet, it doesn’t show the current time and tends to hold on to the old daylight savings time. That said, this smart microwave oven brings the best of both worlds. It’s affordable, and the bigger space gives you ample space to cool or reheat your food. And did we tell you the Alexa commands add to the fun?
Another handy feature is the One-Touch cooking which is apt for cooking small food like popcorn or heating a beverage. The folks at Digital Trends tested this on a bag of Redenbacher’s popcorn, and the popcorn came out perfect. If we talk numbers, this Sharp oven also comes with presets for 23 other food items, including pizza. At 1.4 cubic feet, this Sharp smart microwave is bigger and more powerful than the ones above. If you are looking for an oven that does more than reheat your food, this one proves to be a good buy. It is popular at Best Buy for its easy-to-set-up process and smooth integration with Alexa.
4. Panasonic NN-SV79MS Smart Microwave Oven
Unlike the one above, there aren’t many one-touch buttons. However, there’s a dedicated button for popcorn. The good news is that it cooks a bag of popcorn perfectly, and several users have backed this claim in their reviews. Apart from that, you will find the usual buttons for the timer, clock, turbo defrosts, etc. Like the Sharp smart microwave ovens, this Panasonic oven also comes with a humidity sensor that adjusts the time of the cook and the power depending on the steam emanating from the food. It’s a big appliance, and you will need considerable space on your countertop to keep this oven. For instance, it needs a 12-inch gap above.
Alexa, Bring Out the Popcorn
While smart microwave ovens ease the cooking or reheating process, you will have to do the actual deed of putting the food in the oven beforehand. That means that you can wake up to a warm bowl of oatmeal (provided you give the required command when you wake up), but you will have to make sure that you put the food inside before you go to sleep (and pray that it doesn’t go bad). Jokes aside, smart microwave ovens with Alexa support let you cook hands-free to a certain extent. Additional features like humidity sensors and one-touch buttons add to the cooking process.